In the past five years, the NFL has made drastic changes in rules regarding legal hits and the protection of defenseless players. The most recent change was implemented just over a week ago. It states: No player is allowed to lower his helmet outside the tackle box when making contact with an opposing player- the result of doing so will now be a 15-yard penalty.
The National Football League, the most popular sports league in the nation, finds itself fighting for its own life. With the league in jeopardy, the NFL will have to go to great extent to save its reputation and league.
Complaints and concerns have been raised around the country by doctors, parents, former players and coaches- all about the serious head trauma that NFL players undergo. The constants bashing and ramming of the players’ heads has been proven to cause serious, and sometimes fatal, head and brain damage.
The most common head injury these football players get is known as CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy. The incurable disease has a number of effects, including depression, memory loss, and difficulty controlling emotions. Repeated concussions cause the disease and damage the brain’s executive function, the part of our mind responsible for rationality and goal-oriented behavior.
Individuals with CTE may show symptoms of dementia, such as memory loss, aggression, confusion and depression, which generally appear years or many decades after the trauma. The disease has a history of high suicide rate. The disease caused the following players to commit suicide: Terry Long, Andre Waters, Dave Duerson and Junior Seau.
Junior Seau committed suicide on May 2, 2012. Seau was found dead from a gunshot wound to the chest at his home in Oceanside, California according to ABC News Mikaela Conley. Several former NFL players have committed suicide in recent years, and many experts believe these deaths could be related to repeated blows to the head. Seau’s brain was reviewed by three neuropathology experts and they established that he suffered from C.T.E.
Researchers at Boston University, who pioneered the study of C.T.E., have found that 33 out of the 34 brains, donated by former N.F.L. players, that they have examined have had links to the disease. They also found “abnormal, small clusters called neurofibrillary tangles of a protein known as tau within multiple regions of [Seau’s] brain.”
“I think it’s important for everyone to know that Junior did indeed suffer C.T.E. It’s important that we take steps to help these players. We certainly don’t want to see anything like this happen again to any of our athletes.”
So with concerns being raised, what can the NFL do to ensure critics that the sport is safe enough to play?
Another rule change includes the “Defenseless Player Rule,” which penalizes players for hitting other players before they have the chance to look and protect themselves. It especially protects receivers as they make a catch in the air. This rule was recently further expanded to protect defensive players on crackback blocks, making it illegal to hit them in the head or neck area.
Despite the recent rule changes, the argument is still ongoing. Many critics feel that the sport is still too dangerous to be played, and that it needs to be shut down. Meanwhile, many players and fans of the sport think the changes have been more than sufficient, and do not want their sport being altered any further. The fact is, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is doing all he can do to please the doctors and critics without completely changing the game of football.
The sport will always be a physical one. It will always involve risks and injuries. But recent efforts of Goodell and the rest of the NFL are attempting to keep the sport alive while keeping the protection of players a major priority. Even if the critics are not completely satisfied with the changes, they cannot argue that Roger Goodell is not trying to make the brutal sport a safer one for its athletes.
